(September 20th-30th) A chance to catch my breath? Alas, no. It seems that all of my recent trips home have been but short visits between work trips, and so there's always a mountain of tasks to deal with, especially after visiting Vienna and Stuttgart, where I went ten whole days without checking my work email! Such a liberating experience until I went into the office and saw how many hundreds of emails were waiting for me...
But, enough of that, this short visit back was rather action packed as usual...complete with flying mom out to celebrate her seventieth birthday! How did that happen? Tempus fugit.
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| Mom always wanted me to travel with her to exotic locations like Madrid, so here we are in Madrid, NM. |
I won't go into all of the
Gorey details, but I will highlight some of our dining experiences in New Mexico. I've
lamented in past posts that I rarely document the wonderful restaurants that we have in this enchanting state, so what better opportunity to correct that than during a visit from an out of towner?
First up, mom's birthday lunch at one of my favorite lunch places (mainly because I so rarely get to go there, but thoroughly enjoy it whenever I do):
Torino's at Home.
To start: caprese. Look at those heirloom tomatoes! So rich, plump, and delicious, drizzled with balsamic.
This was the first time that I had had a panini at Torino's. Usually I'm distracted by something like a duck leg confit. But, this panini won me over as it was stuffed with the fore mentioned duck confit, plus goat cheese, caramelized onions, zucchini,and cilantro.
In preparation for our large dinner, mom decided to stick with a salad...this wasn't an ordinary salad though as it was filled with goat cheese croquettes! There's also an option to duck confit-ify it as well, though for some reason mom isn't as much of a carnivore as me when you mention duck...
For her birthday dinner, we continued the style of exuberant meals and went to
Farm and Table, one of those restaurants that champions the local sourcing concept for food.
One of the great things about Farm and Table is that the menu is constantly changing based on what's in season and what's fresh and just right for cooking. However, for this tardy blogger, that also presents a significant challenge in terms of remember what the heck we ate! To start, on the right are mussels in a feta and green chile broth. Nothing quite says Nuevo Mexico like green chile. Oh green chile, how I miss thee... On the left is a bit trickier...as best as we can remember, that's fried green tomatoes, which makes perfect sense...what southerner can resist fried green tomatoes? My mom and I certainly can't!
My main course: farro risotto with navy beans and fennel. Having just cooked farro recently, the thought of turning it into risotto is fresh in my head. It has that right texture, al dente if cooked just right, to make for a great risotto...the trick, though, is getting the right flavors into it. This dish had a very beany flavor as the fennel was rather subtle...
Kim went with my favorite, the duck. See that crispy skin and moist interior? The duck at Farm and Table is the standard by which I measure all other mallards. I always wish that I could cook duck just like that, but inevitably I never manage it since I don't have it with the skin on (necessary for that crisp exterior that seals in the juices!). I'm going to have to go duck hunting in England to fix that I think...
Brussels sprouts with bacon. Not actually listed on the menu, but you can order it as a side. I love bacon'd brussels sprouts so much that I always have to get my fix of them, one way or another! Luckily, for when I'm away, cooking them like this is extremely easy.
You may think that my mom ordered salmon with a side salad, but au contraire! That's the orange tarragon roasted beet salad with a side of salmon! Marinated beets, pickled turnips, garlic rosemary bleu cheese yogurt, oranges, greens, and a little bit of salmon for the aesthetic topping.
Last stop on our New Mexico Dining Decadence Tour '12 was
Cafe Pasqual's. Not a place that I normally eat at due to my favorite Santa Fe restaurant, Shokho, being not too far away, we decided to get reservations and venture into Cafe Pasqual for a change of culinary pace.
When I dine at a nice restaurant that has disposable menus, I tend to ask to take one as a souvenir. As a result, I don't have to think too hard to recall what each dish we had was!
To start, warm French Brie with a roasted head of garlic and a baguette to spread salsas of roasted tomato-jalapeno and tomatillo. Next to that are mussels in a cream broth with toasted baguette for dipping. We like mussels in case you can't tell. And yes, I do try my best to block out the passage from
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. If you know what I mean, you can share my pain. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, let's keep it that way...though if you're a foodie, how have you not read that yet??? The salsas with the brie, by the way, were fantastic...and that cooked garlic? The best type! Just roasted long enough to be spreadable like butter!
My main course - Cochinita Pibil, organic Becker lane pork slow cooked in a Yucatan
style spiced marinade, wrapped in a banana leaf, served with
calabacitas, cilantro rice, corn tortillas and habanero-marinated onions. Fantastic. Inside that banana leaf was the previously mentioned slow cooked, spiced pork that was just oh so tender. mmmmmmmm....
Even though there were four of us dining, I only captured half of the main dishes on film. Above is the plato supremo, for when everything sounds too good to pass up! An Anaheim chile relleno, a mole enchilada with rosie's organic chicken, and a beef barbecoa taco with cilantro rice. A good mole sauce is the perfect blend of dessert and entree...it's hard to ever go wrong with that combination!
Well, as short as this posting is, that's about how long I was in Albuquerque between trips. Next up, the truth!
